Rio de Janeiro intends to replicate the gigantic statue

Feb 20, 2015 16:07 GMT  ·  By

If you've ever been in Rio de Janeiro, the second largest city in Brazil, you've no doubt seen the immense statue of Christ the Redeemer with his arms outstretched as if embracing the world.

Even if you've never been there, you probably saw at least a picture or two during Internet surfing.

The statue is 30 meters tall (98 feet) and 8 meters wide (26 feet) at the pedestal, while the arm span is of 28 meters (92 feet).

It appears that Pix4D, Aeryon Labs Inc., and Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro decided it was time for the statue to be properly immortalized in the virtual space.

Using aerial drones with four rotors, also known as quadcopters and quadrotors, they have made a three-dimensional model of the statue by combining terrestrial and aerial imagery from photos.

They took pictures of the statue, base and surrounding areas, as well as nine subsectors in order to have enough to sift through reflection, background and scale issues.

Eventually, Pix4Dmapper Pro desktop software managed to create a faithful CAD model of the sculpture, a compilation of 134.4 million points and a 3D textured mesh of 2.5 million triangles. The Christ the Redeemer model is available for everyone now.